Terran Federation (TF:C Verse)
Disclaimer: This Article is based on Starship Troopers Film/TV Series Universe Canon and the Tabletop Game by Mongoose Publishing. "Courage, Duty, Honor..." -An excerpt from the Federation Patriotic song "A Good day to die" As sung by the Former Sky Marshal of the West Omar Anoke The Terran Federation, officially known as The United Citizen Federation is a space faring sovereign state, republic-style parliamentary system of government based on Earth and its controlled colonies representing the majority of human populations in the Milky Way. History The Disorders Era of Earth Sometime around the late period of 21st Century AD, approximately in 2050, Earth suffered from a series of catastrophic global conflicts between world superpowers and regional powers. Culminating in the Russo-Anglo-American Sino War for Siberia and Far East Russia in 2110, and ending in 2130. Nuclear weapons were not used due to fear of mutually assured destruction and constant, almost frantic diplomatic discussion on all sides. Despite this the war still left a profound consequences to the globe and its societies, as the effects of rising seas, and increased temperatures, combine with an increase in ferocity of natural events like droughts and floods, devastated farmland, and struck coastal regions, where 76% of the population of the world lived along, particularly hard. Facilities like the FEMA EERC (Environmental Emergency Refugee Camp) outside New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America Would remain open well into the Federal Governing, indeed it remains as a museum to this day. During the war, several attempted uprisings were made by intellectual elites of different nations, most notably the Revolt of the Scientists of 2126. All of these attempted coups were quelled in their respective nations, events relating to these coups remain classified, with many documents destroyed or missing. The wars came to an end with the signing of the New Dehli Treaty, the treaty's controversial conditions pertaining to the treatment of POWs led to a surge of disgruntled veterans worldwide. Coupled with the economic turmoils and social crisis, many governments neglected their populations and eventually fell into a stage of stagnancy and decadence. Rise of the Federation The origin of what became the Federation started with a populist uprising in Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom. A group of disgruntled veterans, disillusioned civic servants, and concerned civilians formed a political movement known as the "Aberdeen Militia", to combat against the violent gangs which had overran the city, and restoring social and civic order in the city. The day of their Uprising on October 19 2132 AD, is known as an official Federal holiday, Federation Day, or Aberdeen Day, or in Scotland "Fuck England" Day. When the Militia took the city of Aberdeen, the European Alliance declared martial law and tried to take military action against the populist union. However, their growing dissident populations and demoralized military eventually erupted into massive riots and desertions, which in turn caused the EA government to collapse as member nations underwent emergency referendums, with many leading parties being dissolved overnight. With the former EA nations joining the Militia's cause, a new unified political entity was formed in Europe, naming itself the European Federation, this started a trend of fear and paranoia worldwide as national governments were one by one ousted by their own populations in favor of joining the Militia movement. Governments worldwide attempted to suppress the new Global Federation Party, and other populist movements followed after around the globe. Many of these efforts failed, as the populist message was a heady call to most veterans world wide, and the desperate populations of many nations crushed underfoot during the Disorder Wars. Most nations fell bloodlessly in elections and changes of power, as the European Federation quickly proved itself capable, rebuilding, often from the ground up, the listing and troubled economies of their member nations, improving quality of life, and launching a very successful if often insufficient humanitarian campaign across the world. Global superpowers also succumbed to the Militia populist movements, and eventually, one by one, their governments were ousted and nations joined the Federation. The last of these superpowers, China, finally joined in 2146, after decades of bloody and pointless fighting sparked a revolt among the military after orders to fire on protesters. Pro-Democracy supporters overthrew the Chinese government in one of the few rare bloody revolutions, known as "The days of Red Lights", called so for the act of hanging party leaders and administrative leaders on street lights with slit throats. With the near complete unification of the globe, the European Federation began to establish a true united Earth, writing up a constitution and government. Acting as a unifying political body for Earth, it eventually renamed itself into the Global Federation form 2150-62, then the Terran Federation in 2163, and finally the United Citizen Federation in 2220. Soon after their formation, the Federation announced am ambitious worldwide economic recovery plan, and social policies for its people, most specifically regions which were heavily affected by the aftermath of the Disorder wars like the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and central Eurasia. This plan would prove largely successful, as the scrapping of most other currencies in favor of a unified "Federal Dollar", and the establishment of at the time temporary price fixing for basic needs, ensured that even the poorest could afford a full meal and amenities. Era of Discovery Within decades, publicly around 2180, the Federation began to reorganize the former defunct space programs of Earth's Nations into a singular organization, the Federal Stellar Authority. Their first success were made with the launch of the TFS Gallileo, the first spaceship constructed since before the Disorder Wars Era. More success in space colonization efforts eventually paid off, as the FSA began to colonize the Moon, establishing the Lunar Base and the Olympus Base on Mars. During the colonization of Mars, scientists discovered remarkable proof of the existence of extra-terrestrial life forms. The first example being several primitive plants and fossils they discovered on the Martian surface, the second, and most remarkable, an ancient alien base located beneath Martian surface near the southern pole. However, the scientist crew who started to unearth the base become infected with a bio-weapon deployed by a religious extremist group of Scientologists. As a result, the FSA was forced to nuke the facility to prevent a viral outbreak, thus wiping out both the virus and all the assets located in the underground base. The decision was extremely controversial, but Federal authorities would declare it a necessary sacrifice for saving human lives over a potential scientific breakthrough. During this period, the discovery of Psionic powers in human biology changed the fabric of Human society, with the first known case of this from a civilian clerk named Jon Forrest, being the first documented and verified human psychic. A Special Service was established to monitor and govern Psychic citizens and civilians in society. With the invention of an FTL Drive by Kazakh scientist Pavel Cherenkov, the Federation began constructing its first FTL capable spaceship, the TFS Magellan. This revolutionary propulsion system was the culmination of a decades long of cost-mounting and controversial scientific research. The Cherenkov Drive was later known as the "Magnetic-Gravity Drive" due to its formation of a new branch of physics. The Colonization Era A relatively short time in human history, only fifty years starting with the FSA's establishment of the moon base to the orbital research and civic centers around Jupiter, it was ended sharply by the First Bug War on Pluto. The First and Second Bug Wars The First Bug War begins on Pluto, when the FSA research team is attacked and nearly wiped out by what was thought to be native life on Pluto. Pluto being a collection of ice asteroids and rocky planetoids was riven with caverns and crannies across its surface. The operation to wipe out the bugs lasted six months, and despite unexpected casualties from the supposed animal life, was a total success. It was short lived. A day later, an FTL contact was detected leaving the system, before the report could even reach Earth desks, an accelerated asteroid impacts Buenos Aires, killing millions and leaving tens of millions more wounded and homeless. The Second Bug War begins, and it would be two decades until the war was supposedly once more concluded. Relay 314 Incident 2329 AD - The Federal Shanxi Defense Fleet in the Shanxi system detonated moon E-SS-8-2b, as target practice during routine drills and at the behest of Shanxi Colonists to break open the ice moon for its water to be transported to Shanxi. During firing drills by the Black Prince's laser cannons, the moon was suddenly shattered as the primary Shanxi relay activated itself in defense from the laser fire. It is then science officer Andrew Selvo sends a probe to the relay without authorization and the relay sends it away. After four weeks, the relay is confirmed safe, and the TFS Ragnar Lodbrok is sent to investigate the other end. However, a standard relay patrol group, lead by the Turian Cruiser THS Vanker with its escort frigates, in a one in a million occurrence find the lone Federation scout corvette Ragnar Lodbrok and initially thought they were pirates, and try to stop them from escaping through the local relay. The Terran corvette, alerted by the sudden appearance of the Turian cruiser and its escorts, attempted to flee back through the relay. However it had drifted significantly from the relay while it was taking readings and was quickly being outpaced by the much faster frigates so it fired a warning shot. Unfortunately standard hierarchy procedure when buzzing opponent ships is to tightly group themselves for shock and awe. The warning shot missed the prow of the leading frigate by meters and hit the trailing frigate killing the pilot and co pilot and exposing the command deck to hard vacuum killing the navigator with extreme burns to 90% of his body, but mercifully the atmosphere shield enabled before the rest of the command crew succumbed to vacuum's cold embrace. The Hierarchy assembled a 50 ship taskforce to confront the Terrans, this taskforce would later be the savior of the Shanxi colony. The First Contact with the Turians was disrupted by the Petolemaic invasion of Shanxi, the first human world near the border with Citadel Space. Commodore Erica Chavez retreated alongside the Turian fleet and managed to convinced the Turian command to assist the Federation in saving the colony from enslavement. She would lead the fleet in battle against the Skinnies a few days later, the turian fleet dropping their soldiers on Shanxi and relieving the colony from the remnants of the Skinnie forces. Their coordination with the defending Terran military units enabled great tactical success in driving out the Skinnie raiders of Shanxi with only minor losses after brutal close combat fighting. The Turian Hierachy by this point had officially informed the council of their first contact and wished to join the Federation in their retaliation campaign against the Petolemaics. The Council, who learned about the first contact incident, offered a warm welcome to the Terran Federation, revealing the existence of the greater galactic community to humanity. Petolemaiac War The Petolemaic Insurrection War is a culmination of intensifying hostility following a government coup by more militant Skinnie factions in the Hegemony on Tophet. Declaring themselves as the Tel'Rock Dominion after their leader, the former Hegemony Admiral turned Warlord Tel'Rock had systematically purging Gen'Tak followers in their territories, the Warlord's faction become increasingly hostile towards the Federation. Around late March 2657GS/2329AD, the Warlord's factions began full mobilization for war and by April of the same year, they struck Shanxi, but the attack was repealed by the combined efforts of Turians and humans. Despite this setback, the Tel'Rock Armada managed to successfully decimated Federation's frontier garrison fleets in the Skinnie colonies through surprise attacks. Initially, the Warlord's military managed to overwhelm the unprepared Federation's forces, but with the Turians joint the fray, the tides of the war fell into a state of stagnancy and began to turns against their favor. This starts with the battle of Cassandra where the Turian Fleet managed to break through the Skinnie naval blockade above the planet, the Terran-Turian combined fleets was victorious, the counteroffensive operation successfully break the stalemate of the war and liberate many Libertatem forced labors from the shackles of the Warlord's Dominion. This victory was eventually followed by victories in battles such as Siege of Zion and many other places like Svixsula and Urdennes, with the increasing loss, the Warlord's Armada was driven back into their own territories in a defensive war that now turned against them. Following a Skinnie raid on one of the Council's outer colony Tesla'Vir, a Coalition was made between the Turian Expeditionary Fleet and the Terran Federation to lead a punitive expedition towards the increasingly hostile Petolemaic forces. The Turian Hierarchy at this point officially declared war on the Warlord's Dominion over the atrocities of the unprovoked attack on Tesla'Vir. Soon after, the Terran-Turian Alliance began to push for the initiative and launched their invasion into Hegemony space, first attacking the planet Lockhet, the capital of the Republic of Ha'Mon; an influential military state in the Warlord's Dominion and defeat the Warlord's last standing fleet over the Hegemon capital at Tophet by the end of March, 2658GS/2330AD, after the death of the Warlord, the Dominion surrendered and was dismantled afterward, with power vacuum of the Hegemony eventually given back to Lew Gen'Tak, a member of the former ruling Gen'Tak tribe in-exile after his clan was decimated by the Bugs War. In the aftermath of the war, the Hegemony officially entered a negotiation of post-war concessions and repairations for the Federation and the Turians. The war was formally ended by April 2658GS/2330AD. The Third Bug War During the Petolemaic War, the Federation had also managed to successfully ended the Second Bugs War with the deployment of a planet-killing NOVA bomb on Klendathu, home of the Feral Arachnid species. This forced the Queen Bug alongside her remaining hive members into an exile to their more technocratic counterparts, the Pseudo-Bugs. Outraged by the actions of the Federation, the Pseudo-Arachnids planned for an invasion of Earth's sphere in retaliation for the destruction of Klendathu. The Bugs eventually struck their first surprise attack on Earth on 4th March of 2666GS/2338AD after the assassination of several prominent Federation high ranking officials such as Tehat Meru and Enolo Phid at Geneva. The Federation, whom had been drunken in victories after the Two Bugs Wars and the Petolemaic Insurrection was completely caught offguard by the Pseudo-Arachnids (initially though they were contained in a war with the Afrodisians thus can't spare any forces for their more feral counterparts). The conflict saw the uses of the Bug's gravity well generators which caused disruptions and loss in effectiveness of Federation FTL travels. Earth was eventually besieged and each colonies save for the Eastern ones were cut off from the FTL traffic. Despite this, thanks to the use of quantum entanglement communication, the Federation was able to coordinate successful counterattacks, but with heavy casualties. In just a year, the Federation counteroffensive finally break through Earth's naval blockade, but at a heavy cost. Thanks to the efforts from their wayward estranged Terran Republic relatives and the renegade pirate group Black Cross, the Battle of Terra has been won, but the Federation had effectively lost the war on a strategic level, with many of its assets either destroyed or fell into the Pseudo-Bugs hands. The conflict was formally ended on June 1st 2666GS/2338AD above Earth in a series of peace negotiation between Naplon, the Prime Queen of the Pseudo-Arachnid Empire and the surviving Federation officials lead by Governor Williams, Sky Marshall Straker and General Juan Rico. In the aftermath of the war, the Federation's economy entered a period of crisis and recession, its loss of the territories in the Klendathu system and its neighbors is a huge blow to the Federation isolationist politics and eventually, they were forced to realize the fact that humanity is just as vulnerable as everyone else. The Citadel Interstellar League saw the opportunity in this and extended a hand to the Federation. Offers from various Volus banking clans and powerful Asari corporates were accepted, on the condition that the Federation joined the Citadel. Despite some shaky starts and disagreements over C-Space policies, the process of negociation of the Federation entry, as well as the majority of humanity into Citadel's inner politics is a welcoming sight for the Council as not only humanity had learned its humility but also officially ended its isolationist policies and becoming more open with the rest of the galactic community. Government and Colonial Administration The Federal Council is the ruling body of the Federation Government, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The Governor Prime is the head of state and head of government of the U.C.F, who directs the executive branch of the federal government and oversees the majority of civilian affairs within the Federation. Federal Colonies are allowed to have a certain degree of autonomy and elect a regional Governor determined by population size. Each colony is free to pursue its own political agenda and have a distinct jurisdiction system based off old Earth, this is allowed as long as it does not violate the interests of the wider Federation or Federal laws. Society The people of the Terran Federation are made up of either "Citizens" or "Civilians". Everyone is born a "Civilian", and at age 18 every "Civilian" has the right to enroll for a minimum 2 year, maximum 20 year term of "Federal Service". In theory a completed term of Federal Service ensures a "Citizen" is willing to put the needs of the community before their own personal well-being. This is because Federal Service is tough and dangerous (by design). It can involve joining the Military, being a Human guinea pig, testing survival equipment, or backbreaking Manual Labour. The more dangerous or difficult the task, the shorter the term of service will often be. The Federation makes it quite easy to quit a term of service before completion (even during war time), but once someone has quit they are never allowed to enroll again barring special circumstances. This is to ensure that all volunteers are dedicated, whilst also discouraging people from leaving. The opportunity is open to everyone able-bodied or not. A Doctor giving a medical lecture to perspective Citizens once said, "if you came in here in a wheelchair and blind in both eyes, and were silly enough to insist on enrolling, we will find you something silly to match. Counting the fuzz on a caterpillar by touch, maybe." The only way you can not join is if a psychiatrist decides you cannot understand the oath. The CAE, or Civilian Aptitude Exam, is a rigorous and long series of physical, written, and oral examinations to determine the skills, fitness, and capabilities of a civilian. It is nearly impossible to "Fail" the test, with only the psychiatric portion failable if the person is deemed mentally incapable of upholding or understanding the oath. Doing well on the test allows one to influence where they can be assigned, doing poorly or having only narrow fields of capability limits ones options, however, there is always something of value in everyone, even if that value is mopping up the floor, or counting the legs on a caterpillar. "Civilians" are neither discriminated against, nor deprived of legal rights other than that of the ballot, only after completing a term of Federal Service, "Civilians" then become "Citizens" and gain the right to vote among other special privileges and rewards. Citizens are however highly respected, and after completion of service come out with a full college education, resources, and contacts. All Citizens are trained and educated, required to have a good understanding of history, and to maintain a level of physical fitness suitable for military service if possible. All Citizens, regardless of occupation or job while in service are expected to rejoin and serve in the military if called upon in times of extreme crisis. Economy The Terran Federation economy is a mix between state owned corporations and vying independent organizations, with the majority of weapon and research companies state owned or state funded. For example Morita Arms Company has been state owned since the formation of the Federation, while Terran Shipyards despite the name is privately owned and controlled. Despite this however, most of the economy is a free-market with largely Laisses Faire attitude towards the matter except regarding trusts and monopolies. Federal laws clearly state harsh punishments for either purposeful or accidental oligarchy or monopoly up to and including treason. Despite this, opportunities still exists which focus mainly on civilian industries in Terran society. The Federation economy is smaller compared to the other three major space-faring powers in Citadel space. But because of its insular nature, the Terran economy is entirely self subsisting, and while smaller, it allows it to be much more flexible and adaptable to wartime conditions compared to the other major powers, with an efficient state-owned economic system fueling the defense industry during the three Bug Wars. Many have pointed out the uncanny resemblance of the Federation economic policy to the Batarian Hegemony. Both being largely State-owned economic systems, however, despite the Hegemony propaganda boasting about itself, the Batarian planned economy lacks a large scale free-market, and is easily riddled with corruption and unproductive workers. On the other hand, the Federation's economy, which has always been leaned towards a "sudden war" policy, is entirely capable of self-sufficiency as well as being capable of removing corruption and unproductive workers on a much more intimate level. It is perhaps because of the Federation using perspective citizens as its main workforce for its state-owned industries, these highly motivated and driven individuals often serve up to a decade or more on the workforce earning citizenship, with the guarantee that afterwards they can get a highly lucrative contract for a more permanent position in these industries, with a bottom up promotion practice of promoting hard working and skilled persons inspiring others to give their all, every corporate worker started from the bottom and worked their way up. Where as previous corporate stagnation resulted in a grossly top heavy organizations with poor morals and even poorer working practices. Its a common joke among Terran workers, "Slack off and you can get terminated, embezzle and you can get 'terminated'." Military The Federal Armed Services (FAS) is the umbrella name of the primary defense force and military operations branch of the Terran Federation. It is used in times of both peace and war, and is one of the many paths used by civilians to gain franchise and become Citizens through serving for a term of service no less than two years. The FAS consists of the Federal Army, Fleet, and Military Intelligence operational units and is considered the backbone of the Federation, defending its borders, protecting trade routes and invading enemy territory. The Federation Army is the ground force of the Terran Federation and is a purely volunteer (like all Federation Service branches), paternalistic military organization. The two major sections of the Federation army are the Mobile Infantry, and the K-9 Corps, which are independent but work in conjunction with each other. The Army is transported throughout the galaxy by the Navy in various sized transports ranging from a corvette, which houses a single platoon, to regimental transports which house up to six platoons. The M.I. prefers the smaller, "speedier" corvettes because of the operational pliability they offer, and the harsh lessons learned in the First Klendathu Invasion. This provides the ability to conduct concurrent and/or consecutive raid-type missions over a large area of operation and on many planets or systems as opposed to larger set-piece battles or invasions in a more concentrated manner. The Mobile Infantry is an elite fighting force of the Terran Federation. Their training is depicted as extremely strenuous, with a few dying before completion. In actuality, its extremely rare for a recruit to die in training, as their Drill Instructors keep a tight eye on their charges. In the autobiographical novel "Starship Troopers", written by General Juan "Johnny" Rico, describes how out of his entire 2000 man training unit, fewer than 200 made it all the way through basic training on their first attempt. A Mobile Infantryman is typically equipped with a Powersuit as well as an arsenal of weapons and vehicles at his disposal, some built into the suit. These weapons range from conventional firearms to micro-nuclear warheads. The armor is strong enough to resist any conventional weapon less than explosives or anti-tank rated rounds. The servo-motors give the wearer enhanced strength and stamina, capable of supporitn a troper in both high gravity environments and zero G. The armor is also equipped with jump jets and rockets, allowing the trooper to move in zero G, and low gravity environments. One expression used in the book as a compliment to good soldiers is that they are "on the bounce." Rico also goes into detail on other armor types including the universally derided light armor, and the walking tank Exosuits. Because of this, all MI troopers are trained in all equipment, vehicles, and weapons on offer to the MI, from the basic utility knife to the awe inspiring Marauder Exosuits. By the end of a deployment in the MI, its expected the average trooper to bullseye a target at 300 meters with every gun, fillet a fish and gut a man, quote Aristotle and Juan Rico, drive, maintain, and arm every vehicle in the arsenal of the Federation, and know the distinction between the good of the nation and the good of the people. The K-9 Corps is an elite division of the Terran Federation military. Troopers are trained with Neodogs, dogs genetically enhanced that serve as elite scouts. Soldiers in K-9 are selected after intense psychological evaluation, as the bond between the soldier and his neodog (or "caleb") is more intense than any human marriage or relationship. If the master is killed, the neodog is killed at once. If the dog is killed, doctors are often forced to restrain the master and slowly peice his mind back together. Neodogs are genetically-enhanced dogs that serve as elite scouts in the K-9 Corps. Neodogs are said to be over 6 times more intelligent than regular dogs. Every Neodog is assigned a handler and if the Handler is killed, the Neodog is peacefully put down if they don't die of the psychic shock. Pathfinders are the elite of the elite, made up of most dedicated, driven, skilled, and perhaps lucky of the MI, each and everyone is a career soldier survivors and participants in dozens of theaters. To even be considered to join the Pathfinders is an achievement. Pathfinders, as their name suggests, were originally created after the first Invasion of Klendathu to path find, clearing landing zones, assassinating VIPs, destroying high value targets, and other objectives as they come up. They're equipped with the best and most expensive armor and weapons, and a squad of them is equal to entire battalions of normal powersuited troopers in the right cases. Revered for their almost suicidal bravery, they are the first deployed and some of the last to retreat. The Space Navy refers to all Terran Federation forces based in outer space on board spaceships. The Fleet is numbering at 12 Fleets, ranging in size from 1,000 to 10,000 ship, with the 14th Fleet under construction currently. Flight training in the Navy lasts roughly as long as Mobile Infantry boot camp. Those with exceptionally high marks are assigned as pilots for Corvette Transports or F-76 Thunderbolts. Those who do not score as high are assigned to the many other roles on the ships, such as engineering, maintenance, and weapons systems. The Fleet is also the aerospace warfare service branch of the United Citizen Federation, serving as an air force and as a space armada. Federation Marine Corps is the Naval Infantry branch of the Fleet assigned to defend Fleet ships and installations. They carry the same standard issue weapons as the Mobile Infantry, and well as maintaining the same Rank structure, however unlike the M.I. the Marine Corps goes under the command of Fleet. Namesake The term "Terran" is often used to refers to Humans who originated from the Terran Federation. This spawning of this term dates back to the formation of the Aberdeen Militia, in several patriotic propaganda songs, but its widespread adoption is actually a more recent term, first entering popular usage in 2260 by the movie "The First Citizens", a dramatization of the Aberdeen Militia's creation and war against the gangs and criminals of the city. Its theme, "March of the Terrans", gained popularity across the Federation as the movie was considered a smashing success. It proved so popular that it spawned a revival in interest in the roots of the Federation, and the term "Terran" was starting to be used in replacement of the persons world of origin as a sign of loyalty to the ideals of the Federation. Being "Terran" is seen as a type of ethnicity among humans, anyone can become "Terran", whether human or not, and has no real connotations other than being a civilian or citizen of the Terran Federation. The title is not universal to all humans however. Colonial secessionists, outlaws, and traitors often revile the term, or are reviled for using it, and refer to themselves simply as humans, or of their colony of origin. However despite their insistence, most species still refer to humans species in general as Terran, due to the fact that the Terran Federation is the first officially recognized political entity that represents the human populations in the Galaxy. A good example of humans who aren't Terrans are humans of the System Alliance, many humans born on those worlds are not considered Terrans as they've never set foot in Federal space nor seen Earth or the coreworlds. There is a popular Cruise-ship tour of the core words and Earth in the Systems Alliance for humans looking to reconnect with the homeworld and adopt the term.Category:Factions Category:Humans Category:ContactVerse